Since The Sirens Box Set | Books 1-7

by Isherwood, E. E.

  Liam yelled, “You shoot down into the stairwell, I'll keep them from following you.”

  Working together, they fought the horde to a tenuous standstill.

  Victoria cleared enough zombies to begin going down to the basement level. Liam had his back to her as he fired at will at the dead circling the stairwell entrance on the first floor.

  “Go down!”

  He ran out of ammo as he began to follow. “I'm out of ammo. Turn around.”

  She spun around, and he squirted by to a step just below her. He slung his rifle and in one motion pulled out his handgun and pumped a few rounds into a zombie on the steps below. He holstered the pistol, grabbed a full magazine, and rocked it and locked it into Moses. He finished by pulling the charging handle to chamber the first round. The whole action took fifteen seconds, but during that time, Victoria continued to bang away at the writhing dead above them. In the small stairwell, it was like shooting fish in a barrel, even for a novice like her. But soon she too ran out of ammo.

  “I'm out!” She had panic in her voice.

  Liam turned around and ordered her to get behind him.

  She stumbled down the bodies accumulating on the stairs, but recovered at the landing between floor one and the basement. On her knees, she reloaded her own magazine. It took her twice as long to reload. She mishandled the empty magazine and it fell through the crack into the open space of the level below.

  “Leave it. Run!”

  He was nearly deaf from the noise of their guns, so when she didn't move he was forced to yell even louder. “Get to the basement!”

  She heard that, and did as ordered. He ran behind her; the zombies above were free to pursue.

  Only a few zombies were in the basement level, so it was relatively easy for them to clear those nearby. Hayes had told them where the door was to the underground pedestrian tunnel to the Arch; they ran for it. A few dead zombies littered the route to the tunnel—signs Duchesne had come through. The infected excreted from the stairwell behind them. Daylight found its way through several stairwells of the level, so he could see their destination. After a mad sprint, they reached the doorway and banged against it. It held fast so he tried to pull it open instead.

  “Of course it's locked. Hayes didn't mention any locks.”

  He was dismayed to see a pair of zombies running. He recalled a snippet from some zombie movie.

  No, they're sprinting.

  They were about three-fourths of the way across the garage while the rest of the zombies were still shambling away from the logjam at the stairs.

  Victoria yelled, “Break the glass!” Then she added, “Maybe Duchesne locked it.”

  Liam took the butt of his gun and tried to slam it against the door, but it had no effect.

  “What is this, bulletproof glass or something?”

  “Shoot it out. They're almost here.” To add to her seriousness, she got down on her knee and tried to shoot at the two zombies running.

  The bang bang bang rhythm was nerve wracking for him. He managed to turn his gun around and aim it at the door.

  I wonder if it will bounce back at me?

  As he thought the thought, he reoriented his gun so any ricochet would deflect away from them both.

  Luckily, it was not bulletproof. It blew out just like normal glass.

  Victoria continued to shoot. Each shot like a hammer on his ears.

  “It's open. Let's go!” Everything was a shout now.

  He tapped Victoria on the shoulder, appreciating her shooting skills. She downed the two runners, but the swelling crowd of zombies bore down on them.

  She got up and followed him through the gap.

  They ran for their lives into the dark tunnel.

  4

  Guided by their lights, they ran as fast as they dared down the tiled hallway. He resolved to thank the St. Louis tourism department for insisting this pedestrian-friendly tunnel was built to link the parking garage with the National Monument. It kept them from having to walk the impossible walk on ground level.

  The moans fell behind, but didn't disappear.

  “Hopefully they'll get stuck in the door like the 3 Stooges.” Liam had seen plenty of the bumbling trio. It was a favorite of both he and his father. He could only dream the zombies were that mindless.

  He thought he heard some footfalls from behind, and he slowed just enough to shine his light backward. A blood-covered male soldier zombie hurtled directly at him. He had only a fraction of a second to act, but he guessed the zombie was going for his light, so he tossed it straight up while he sidestepped in the hallway.

  The light smacked the concrete ceiling. The zombie jumped for it, and its speed carried it right by. It tumbled on the slippery tiles, and came to a rest about twenty feet ahead. Victoria still held her light; the beam pierced the bloody eyes of the infected man.

  Liam brought his rifle to bear and fired off a wild series of shots. The close quarters amplified the noise and concussive force, causing him to jump even though he was the one pulling the trigger. Victoria's light was unsteady in the chaos.

  The zombie moved slowly toward them, unconvinced by the missed shots. Liam's light rolled on the floor, throwing light in mad directions. The monster seemed unable to orient on any one light source, or the humans nearby.

  More are coming...

  Panic rose in Liam's stomach.

  He took careful aim, and put one shot into the face.

  Certain he hit it, and with no fanfare, he picked up his own light and they continued down the long hallway.

  “Don't stop, Victoria. Run for it.”

  They never looked back. They reached the Arch museum entrance and encountered two sets of glass doors. The first set was unlocked so they could enter the airlock between the two portals. The interior doors were locked, however.

  “Just shoot it.” She sounded close to panic, too.

  He couldn't see any way to avoid shooting the door. He took some comfort that the outer door was closed, and because it opened outward, the zombies would not be able push it open. But having two intact doors would have made him feel twice as safe.

  He shot the glass. They carefully made their way through the broken glass frame and were inside the Arch museum. It was the same place where he and Victoria and Grandma had sought shelter on the second night of the disaster.

  “Follow me,” he yelled.

  The whole complex was underground, underneath the Gateway Arch. The pedestrian tunnel dumped into the large museum about westward expansion—a quaint notion now—which in turned linked with the cavernous ticketing areas. Tunnels led north and south to the legs of the Arch where, in better times, visitors could board the trams to the top of the structure. Two other tunnels led to more glass doors and the outside.

  As they ran through the museum, several holes in the ceiling suggested the military's bombs had done their work here. Everything inside the museum had been rearranged, or burnt to a cinder. They could easily climb out any of the many holes they passed, but Liam had a specific place he was trying to reach.

  “Why don't we go up, Liam? I want to get out of the dark.”

  “When I was looking at Grandma through the binoculars, I saw lots of zombies, pretty much everywhere up top. We're going to try to get into the railroad tunnel. That will keep us off the surface and drop us pretty close to the boats.”

  Behind them, they could hear zombies once more.

  “They broke through the glass!”

  Liam picked up the pace, which was still pretty slow because he had to weave through the wreckage. Girders from the ceiling were on the floor, along with dirt and other matter from up above. The body of the large stuffed buffalo, which had always stood sentinel at the entrance, had been ripped apart. They passed out of the museum and into the ticketing area where the police and gangs had fought. He finally made his way into the side tunnel leading down to the loading area for the south leg of the Arch. That's where they'd find the final duct work into the ra
ilroad tunnel.

  They arrived at the open door to the maintenance room; the lock had been blown open.

  “Through here.”

  He ran into the room where they had taken refuge weeks ago, and he briefly looked at the stairwell Victoria had climbed with her flashlight while he was locked behind the grate of the small crawlspace with Grandma. It might have been the death of her if his police friends hadn't gone up and saved her later. With no further reminiscing, he went into the crawlspace with Victoria safely behind him this time.

  “Almost there,” he shouted. His ears still pounded.

  He happened to look ahead at the exit and saw the faint glimmer of a wire directly across his path. A wire that shouldn't be there. He stopped his crawl and peered at it with his light for a short time.

  “Whoa!”

  Victoria bumped into him.

  “What is it? We can't stop. We just can't.”

  “Uh. I think it might be a booby trap. There's a wire across the tunnel just ahead.”

  He showed her with his light.

  “Oh man. What do we do now?”

  “Maybe we could trick a zombie into going down there for us?” Liam was laughing as he said it, but he looked at Victoria's face and saw it light up with an idea, just as his did.

  “We can push something through there.”

  With great reluctance, they moved back into the maintenance area. Many days ago, they found a rolling creeper, which they used to get Grandma through the tunnel. Something like that would have been perfect, but they had discarded it just outside the tunnel when they were done with it. The next best thing they found was a metal trash can.

  “What if the explosion causes the tunnel to collapse?”

  As if to mock the question, they heard moans outside the door. There was nothing with enough heft to block the door.

  “All we can do now is pray.”

  Liam used a broom handle to push the trash can ahead of him in the tunnel. He gave himself maximum distance from the wire, then pushed the trash can as hard as he could with the broom handle. It slid down the slight incline into the wire and he was nearly blinded by the light of the explosion. The concussion roared up the tunnel; though it wasn't powerful enough to injure him, it did cause his ears to go numb.

  I guess I didn't think that through.

  Victoria said something, but he couldn't hear her. She pushed him firmly to go ahead. She held her light to her face, and though his vision was filled with stars and tears, he could see her mouthing the word.

  “Zombies!”

  5

  The railroad tunnel was shorter than he remembered. Instead of being a hundred feet to daylight, there were but a handful. The bombs had wrecked it. In the place of the covered rails, there was a long gully filled with debris. It was pure luck the collapse didn't block their secret exit.

  Victoria pulled him along. He was fully aware of what was going on, but the loud ringing in his ears was very disconcerting, though slowly dissipating. He took that as a good sign. His blurred vision started to return to normal too, the longer he ran in the daylight.

  He stole a look behind. No zombies came out of the black hole in the wall.

  They will.

  The more he ran, the better he felt. Soon they were at the end of the tunnel—where the end would have been—and recognized it as the same spot he had seen Grandma and her captors almost a half hour before. He wondered if there was any chance they were even around anymore.

  The cracked landscape made it hard to see much beyond the next hill, but they moved in the direction of the collapsed bridge to the south where the boats were stationed.

  “Can you hear me?” she shouted.

  He gave her the thumbs up sign as affirmation.

  She smiled, but kept moving. She held his hand, guiding him. He felt like he was getting back to normal, but he liked holding her hand so he didn't let go.

  He was fully distracted by the soft feel of her skin when they came over a crater lip, directly in front of a rubber boat with four people standing near it.

  “Oh sh—”

  The soldiers in black were professionals. Duchesne and the big bodyguard carrying Grandma were on the other side of the boat, walking slowly. The woman and a new guy dragged the boat over the cobblestones, but they stopped when Liam appeared. The man in the back pointed his black rifle at them before he could even think about raising his own. He was holding hands, making it virtually impossible to lift a rifle even if he wanted to.

  Super-soldier Liam, reporting for duty.

  He groaned to himself.

  “Drop those weapons.”

  They complied. Liam pointed to his pistol, indicating he had it and didn't want to be shot for having it.

  “Slowly drop the pistols. And the backpack.”

  The Glock was still in the backpack, though he doubted he'd be brave enough to use it against guys like these.

  “Come on down, you two. We could hear you yelling for a mile over there.”

  Liam felt so stupid. Of course they were yelling. They probably heard the booby trap go off too. Mentally he was smacking his own forehead.

  The man ran up and collected their rifles while Duchesne invited them to come to him. The woman had her rifle out, daring him to argue.

  Chapter 15: End Times

  The NIS team had dragged their boat through the debris so they could launch in the water north of the downed bridge. Duchesne indicated they wanted to get Grandma right to the helicopter, which was across from the Arch on the Illinois side.

  They had brought it through the debris on the near end of the downed bridge, but spent a lot of time dealing with zombies. They appeared tired to Liam, but they were close to their goal.

  Just before the boat reached the water, the head of the woman next to Liam exploded.

  “What—” Liam blurted out.

  Two seconds went by. Enough time for him to wonder if any of the blood and gore had gotten on his clothes. He reflexively looked down.

  The man who had been carrying the boat with her lost a good chunk of his right shoulder. The force of the gunshot flung him toward the water; he skidded across the wet cobblestones, into the shallow water.

  Hayes and the bodyguard with Grandma flung themselves on the ground in front of the boat.

  “It's Hayes. Or his floozy. It has to be,” Duchesne yelled to his team.

  Liam was paralyzed with fear. He could run away if he chose. His captors were pinned down. But without his weapons he appreciated how much danger they'd be in. He saw the same look in Victoria's eyes.

  “We have to stick with them or we're dead,” he said to her as quietly as he could manage between the ringing ears and the crunching noise coming off the water. The big jumble of debris at the Poplar Street Bridge had a leading chaotic edge which splashed and spun as the water brought in more junk. Several loose barges bounced in the swell as well, providing the only hint of stability out there.

  “Don't you two think of leaving us. We'll shoot you before you get ten yards. We'll need your services to get over the river.”

  Another shot went over their heads, landing in the water just offshore.

  Liam looked back to the tower and could just barely make out two small dots on the roof. Hayes and Jane were trying to help him.

  “I need you and your gal pal to push the boat in the water for us. We're going to slide along with it. We don't want your Grandma getting hurt now, do we?”

  The implicit threat got him moving, but he looked back to Hayes. Would he shoot him for helping Duchesne? Would he know he had no choice?

  “OK, let's do this,” he said to Victoria. Together they were able to push the rubber boat the short way down the cobblestones and into the water. As promised, the two agents kept themselves hidden the whole time.

  Once in the water, the big man carrying Grandma pulled himself up the far side of the boat and attempted to place Grandma on the floor. He had her most of the way in when a hole appeared in his
neck. This time they all heard the crack of the gun up on the tower.

  “Dammit, Hayes. You're going to pay for these men!”

  “Liam, you and Victoria need to do me a solid. Stand in the water just in front of the boat. I need you to hold it for me, then I'm going to climb in behind you. Remember your Grandma is right at the end of my gun barrel, just in case you were thinking of doing anything heroic.”

  With great effort, they managed to form a wall and get Duchesne into his precious boat. Liam was mentally prepared for him to simply drive away, but he ordered them in as well. Once they were all aboard, he explained his plan.

  “You two are going to be my meat shields. Just sit by me and we'll all make it safely to the other shore. And you, Great-great-great old lady, get up here, too.”

  “But she's...” Liam assumed she was still sleeping, or in a coma, or whatever she was in back in the hotel room. “Alive?”

  Liam knew she was alive because Hayes explained he didn't use zombie blood on her, but he couldn't figure out why or how she could sleep through all the excitement back in the room. His incredulity passed as legitimate surprise. Duchesne fed off that while he tried to start the motor.

  “Yeah, we're going to have to figure out what superpowers your grandma has. She survived the zombie plague. She's the most important person in the world right now and that idiot Hayes—the man who claims he's trying to stop the disease—is the one attempting to prevent me from getting her to safety. Isn't that ironic?”

  So many things flew through his head as he watched Grandma struggle to sit up on the small seat. Both he and Victoria gave her a hand, though Duchesne was careful to ensure they never opened a gap between himself and the big sniper rifle bearing down on him.

  “I can't believe you're OK, Grandma. You survived...”

  “Oh, my body is just too old and decrepit to get infected, I guess.”

  He couldn't tell her she hadn't really been infected. It would decrease his value. As it was, Duchesne gave no indication he was going to take he and Victoria to his base, though he was beginning to think that might be an opportunity.